Margaret's Story from Vermont

My story really begins with my mother. Her diagnosis with breast cancer came when I was five. She had a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. She had about three years after that until it recurred and she died when I was nine.

My story begins with a mammogram at 40 with some "worrisome micro calcifications". I had a biopsy which showed ductal carcinoma in situ, DCIS. Non invasive cancer; I was lucky.

I was in nursing school at the time, single parenting my six-year-old son and living on student loans. I planned the surgery for my school break in February and hoped I would bounce back quickly. It was my final semester of RN school, and I wanted to be done so I could move on with my career and my life. It was not as easy as I hoped.

I did not have clear margins on the lumpectomy so another one was recommended. My stress level from nursing school alone was very high and combined with single parenting and recovering from one surgery I was at my limit. Looking forward to another surgery was just too much.

I was handling my course work well enough but was really challenged by my clinical. I found it hard to balance giving so much to my patients while I myself was in such a needy place.

I decided taking care of myself and my son was higher priority than finishing school right now so I dropped my nursing class and made a plan to finish the following year. This was a good decision for me.

I felt so much better after dropping my class that I sailed through the second surgery and finished up my other courses with ease. My story does not end here.

I was in a huge financial hole by now and was not earning the RN wage I had been counting on to pay off my school year. I went back to work as an LPN and began repairing my financial life. My Doctor recommended radiation therapy to follow up the surgery. I was resistant to doing it. I did not want to expose my body to potentially cancer causing radiation and the schedule of five days a week for seven weeks seemed totally unmanageable for me.

Single parenting, working, trying to restore balance to my life while preparing for take two on my final semester at nursing school; it felt like too much so I skipped the radiation. Six months after the second surgery and a few weeks before starting my final semester I had another mammogram.

Initially I received two reports in the mail. One said everything was okay and another said follow up with your surgeon to check out some abnormality on the mammogram.

I immediately called my surgeon who told me there must be some mistake because they had no report saying they needed to follow up with me. They recommended I come at my scheduled appointment time in about five weeks. Irritated by the mistake but delighted that it was a “mistake” I went about starting school again. Well I went to my follow up appointment and it wasn’t a mistake. There was some confusion, the radiologist had gone on vacation and the surgeon did not want to ruin my holidays until he was sure etc. etc. etc.

I was really upset, and told them I was not going to ruin another semester with surgery and was it possible to delay this until I was finished with school. They agreed. The spot was so small and it was probably more DCIS. I got a second opinion and decided to stay with my local provider.

I had a great semester and kept it at the back of my mind. However, I did notice what I thought was scar tissue building up at the scar from my lumpectomy. A biopsy at the end of the semester revealed a small tumor starting which was now invasive cancer. We were all surprised.

The pathologist and the surgeon had never seen DCIS move to invasive cancer so quickly. Why was I so lucky? Well I graduated with my RN, had a mastectomy, took my RN Board exam and passed, and started chemotherapy a few weeks later. My pathology report showed two positive lymph nodes which puts me in stage 2 breast cancer. I just received treatment #four of six of my chemotherapy, a three drug cocktail administered every three weeks.

After this I will possibly have a full year of monthly treatments with a single drug. I just began working two half days a week during the two weeks I am not receiving treatment. I was working per diem while in school so was not eligible for any disability money through work. I am lucky enough to have Medicaid coverage which has covered my medical expenses.

It is the living expenses that are the problem. I have food stamps and am applying for welfare money at this point. I am living on borrowed money and trying to balance all my debt. The good new is that my son is doing well. I have made him my priority through this and he is handling things well. He will be eight years old in a few weeks.

I am hoping to be working more in about two months so my financial recovery can begin again. Any assistance I could receive would be welcome.

Brattleboro, Vermont